Watercooler: Add New Girl, Stir For Drama on The Bachelor

Poor Ben, all kinds of optimistic about surviving another week of group dates without some sort of chaos, got his hopes for peace dashed in a heartbeat on The Bachelor last night — and we loved it.

After almost 90 minutes of the ladies being relatively sane (except for skiing in bikinis, which made us wonder if Girls Gone Wild's Joe Francis was now directing for ABC), the kray-kray came out in full, f-bomb force once the long-teased "mystery lady" arrived. As the rumors suggested, it was indeed Shawntel, the heavy-browed mortician from Brad's second season, and for some reason, she wanted in on the Ben Flajnik action mid-stream.

Being a franchise alum, of course, meant simply calling Chris Harrison from the car as she drove to San Francisco to join the fun — and stir the pot. "I want to date Ben, too," she boldly told the assembled messes as they slowly began to unravel over her Ben-us interruptus. By the time the rose ceremony rolled around, Nicki was weeping, Elyse was getting her street eyes buggin', model-bot Courtney called the new girl "whatsherbutt," and Erika kept passing out. Oh, and Jaclyn whined about being an "emotional wreck." (Like she ever stood a chance of making it past Week 4 looking like a Teen Mom after a Wet Seal makeover.)

How did it all end? With the smartest move Ben could have made: He just didn't give out the last rose and cut the thorny issue of Shawntel's visit super short.

What did you think of that move? Should Ben have kept her around? Or should she just stay away from The Bachelor for good?